Gary Sipes was just a kid, around 11 or 12, that summer in 1969 when he decided to join a procession weaving its way through his neighborhood on Aurora’s East Side.
On that warm summer day, he had nothing better to do. And so he joined members of St. Olaf Church who were walking from their building on Benton Street in Aurora to the groundbreaking of their new church on Douglas Avenue in Montgomery, at a site which at the time was nothing but cornfields.
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Last Wednesday morning, Sipes was back again on that property, this time for the groundbreaking of the new Youth Center for Wayside Cross Ministries that will be built on four acres purchased from the church.
And this time Sipes came as a neighbor, which is significant because overcoming concerns from those who lived nearby was the biggest challenge Wayside faced when the nonprofit took this project to the village of Montgomery last year.
Sipes understood the hesitation. No one likes change, after all. But he also understood something else.
“If we do what we are supposed to do,” he told me, “we are here to help these kids.”
Those feelings were shared by around 125 supporters who gathered for last week’s shovels-in-the ground ceremony.
One of the speakers was Montgomery Village President Matt Brolley, who listened to those neighborhood concerns, yet was on board for this development after taking a tour of the Wayside Cross main campus in downtown Aurora for the first time and realizing “the breadth of everything” they do.
“Fortunately and unfortunately, there is a tremendous need” that “stretches beyond municipal boundaries,” he said, adding that this location, between the church, Fox Valley Park District fields and Krug Elementary School, “is probably the perfect land use.”
“I am very excited,” Brolley said, “to be just a little part of this.”
Vicki Morkos, president and CEO of the Dunham Foundation, expressed similar feelings when speaking about the long relationship her organization has with Wayside Cross.
Thomas Dunham, who started Equipto Electronics, was a founding board member of Wayside in 1928. And his son John C. Dunham, who built upon the success of this Aurora manufacturing company, launched the Dunham Foundation with a mission to “make the world a more comfortable, safer place for mankind to live and prosper,” she said.
That goal aligns perfectly with Wayside, Morkos added, which is why the foundation has been a strong supporter of the ministry’s adult facility and programs in downtown Aurora, as well as its Lifespring Center for women and children.
That “deep trust and confidence” in Wayside is also why they were more than willing to jump in when this newest project was presented.
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“We saw it as an opportunity to support another high-quality initiative, a place where children can learn, play and grow in a safe and nurturing environment,” Morkos said.
Plus, it just made sense. For about 15 years Wayside Cross had been using St. Olaf as the home of its after- school and summer programs for kids ages 5-17 from Aurora and Montgomery. While the idea of having its own building had long been discussed, it was when Wayside Executive Director James Lukose drove past the church a couple years ago and noticed the large open parcel next to it that this dream started turning into reality.
The approximately 10,000-square-foot center, which will be completed next summer by Sequoia General Contracting, will include classrooms, a multi-purpose room, gymnasium and kitchen, with the idea of adding sports fields later.
The center will provide tutoring and educational opportunities as well as youth leadership and recreational activities, all of which, St. Olaf interim Pastor Dan Haas pointed out, fits the mission and spirit of this church that was founded by Norwegian immigrants who came to America in the early 1900s in large part seeking religious freedom and wanted to “use their talents and abilities for the glory of God.”
“Today we start to make the vision a reality,” Sequoia President David Blasi told the audience to much applause. “Let’s pick up our hard hats and shovels and get to work.”